[Armchair BEA 2016] Day 4: Fictional Worlds

Armchair BEA is an online conference that runs in conjunction with Book Expo America (BEA) in New York City.

Day 4 of ABEA (which I actually forgot to draft something up for Day 3 oops) features fictional worlds and surviving in them.

Fictional Worlds & Surviving In Them

Which fictional worlds would you want to live in? Which worlds do you never want to dive into? Which worlds are you content to stay behind the glass, so to speak, rather than wishing to dive through the page? And once you get there, what would you do?

I have one definitive answer that draws from my reading and gaming experience to which I would actually really want to have a go at: the world of Panem and The Hunger Games. Literally, the competition.

I’ve mentioned this on my blog before but I actually would love to see how I’d fare in the competition. I’d probably die — actually, no, I’m sure I would — but it’s one of those things I’d love to try failing than to not try at all.

See–this isn’t about some cosmic revelation that I want to prove my worthiness or testosterone-y non-existent manbun, but rather that in most video games I’ve played, I’ve created this false sense of confidence that I’m actually okay (“competent”) enough to be average or maybe above average; that there’s a chance I’d survive.

Plus, when you game-ify anything and make things interactive, there’s more reason to play and win. Have you read the article that mentions shopping at IKEA has a game aspect to it?

But it’s more than that for me. I think (?).

I’m just in awe with the complexity of the different gamemasters and their faux world designs each year. I also told a few people this (or maybe this blog, I forget), but I’d really love an anthology of the first-to-73rd Annual Hunger Games books with either information on past games and their victors or just the actual damn story itself of each game. Dear Cash Cows, please pounce on this opportunity.

11 thoughts on “[Armchair BEA 2016] Day 4: Fictional Worlds”

Weirdly enough, I’m watching Catching Fire as I’m reading your post! I totally agree though – the games each year are really interesting in how they are set up, how victors win every year.
Maybe try some fanfiction? xD I haven’t read too many THG fanfics, but there are a couple out there for pre-74th Hunger Games I think 🙂

When I was reading the first book with my sister, when Katniss volunteers to save Prim I turned to my sister and said quite definitively “No I would not volunteer as tribute for you. May the odds ever be in your favor.” years later when I was reading the book to my younger cousin she stops me and says “I would never volunteer as tribute for MY sister.” My family apparently just not not breed volunteers…

Wait, you DON’T have a manbun? Damn. I’ll have to reconsider all the great things I’ve thought about you thus far.

I wonder how many people gain an unrealistic sense of their own physical abilities through video games, then go out and hurt themselves trying to reenact their greatest feats.

You’re on to something with the historical guidebook to the past Hunger Games thing. I don’t think I’d sit through novelized accounts of each Game, but I’d definitely be interested in a giant book of maps, diagrams, records, and brief personal accounts. Maybe you should pitch the idea to a publishing house and make millions.

I wouldn’t be able to kill other people which is why I couldn’t survive Hunger Games. I don’t even want to kill video game people. If I had a desire to live something close to the Hunger Games, I would join the military and go to war.